A/N – There's not much longer to go with this story, gang. A few more chapters, I'd say. This one turned out longer than I anticipated, but I had where I wanted it to start and where I wanted it to end, and I worked the middle. I got accepted into a grad program! I won't start school until January, so nothing will immediately change.
Thanks for all the reviews! It's a great way to let me know that you're enjoying what I'm writing.
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Chapter 34: Surprises
Hiccup poured over his textbooks, scattered over the dark blue library table, the gentle murmur a constant. Absentmindedly, he doodled as he read the chapter again, lines curving without his knowledge.
A pop-top can opens somewhere, and his concentration is broken.
Blinking up from the off-white page, he sees the little curious face of Toothless looking back at him, as if from his hiding place beneath the couch. Smiling, Hiccup drew a little mouse for him to chase.
He let his pencil fall into the crease of the book's margin and leaned back in his wooden-backed chair. Why were midterms so stressful? If he stressed this much over midterms, what were finals going to be like? Hiccup rubbed is face to ease away the non-existent stress of the future.
Outside, the sun titled downward over the west, and lit everything in bright gold and amber. He hadn't even needed his coat today, the first time since he and Astrid had gone down to the mall to buy it. He sighed, that day seemed so long ago.
Hiccup scanned the room before he went back to his books. He didn't see Sunglasses anywhere.
Their new neighbor, dubbed Sunglasses for the dark shades he always wore, had been popping up everywhere. Hiccup had seen him in the supermarket, the discount store, the school bookstore, and in the burger joint on the other side of town. It was all unsettling. Hiccup had had the eerie suspicious that he was being followed for weeks, and didn't know what to do about it.
"I think he waits for me to leave just to follow me," Hiccup had whispered to Astrid one morning.
She'd laughed, and spilled coffee grounds all over her hand. "That's ridiculous. Why would he follow you? Is your dad secretly in the mafia?"
"No," Hiccup shrugged, suddenly feeling small. He hadn't said anything after that. Maybe it was ridiculous.
Hiccup sighed, losing his concentration again. He hadn't spoken to Astrid much this past week. School kept them busy, and Astrid had gotten a promotion and worked more, and often didn't come home until he was already in bed. She would flop down and before he could greet her, she would be asleep.
Her nightmares hadn't stopped. Several times a week she would wake him up, tossing, gripping the blanket with white knuckles, whimpering in her sleep. She never wanted to talk about it, and had pointedly shrugged it off when he'd asked if she was alright.
"I'm fine," she'd say quickly. "It's just stress from work and school, I'm sure. I'll stop by the drugstore and see if I can't get a sleep aid or something."
If she'd bought pills, she kept those from him too.
Hiccup picked at odd stain on his used textbook. She wasn't telling him something, and he knew it, and it bothered him. Sometimes, she would stand at the window, arms crossed in defense, staring out onto the street. If he moved to suddenly, she would jump. She was careful of what she wore, always hoodies, no matter the weather. He hadn't seen her back since that night, only in quick glances when she changed, and her concealment bugged him as much as her standoffishness.
Hiccup packed up his things and headed to the bathroom before he started back to the apartment. He'd walked that morning, and he didn't feel up to making a pit stop in the sleazy gas station, or holding it the entire way. Slinging his bag over his shoulder, he stepped away from the chair, and just caught the fleeting image of a broad shouldered man turning the corner into the stacks.
Hiccup tensed. He'd been followed? Into the library? Inhaling, he tried to ignore it, and went the long way to the bathrooms on the first floor, listening for footsteps. As he turned into the three-stalled restroom, he glanced behind him, to see Sunglasses staring at a bulletin board.
The door slammed behind him, and Hiccup threw out his breath. Was he just being paranoid? Maybe that man had a valid reason for being in all of those places, at the same time Hiccup happened to be in all of those places. He lived in this city, too, and had reason to be anywhere.
Paranoid. That's what it was. Sighing, he set his bag down to take his turn at the urinal, glancing behind to make sure the door didn't open.
X
It's okay.
Everything's okay.
Astrid didn't flinched anymore when water struck her shoulders, or when soap ran down her back. Tiny, white scars sprinkled over her skin, still fading. They'd be there forever, too. A constant reminder.
Everything's just fine.
She towel dried her hair and pulled on her pajamas, glancing at the tiny electronic clock by the sink. Seven forty. Hiccup should have been home by now. A pit dented her stomach, churning her worst fears, beating against her better judgement, and stirring the acidic contents of her gut. She dropped down onto the couch, startling Toothless, who stared back at her with wide, yellow-green eyes.
Why did you do that? A little warning, next time. Toothless seemed to say.
"You only live here because I let you," Astrid reminded the cat, as she often did while Hiccup was out. Truthfully, she didn't hate Toothless. He didn't like her, though. The cat had chosen Hiccup as his person, to be the one he meowed at, the one he saw walking down the sidewalk and waited beside the door for. Toothless glared at Astrid.
Her phone buzzed on the counter, and Astrid jumped to fetch it. Before the screen darkened, she swiped her finger along the message.
Hey, feel like dinner?
Astrid took a long breath. It was from Heather, not Hiccup. She considered not answering, when the dialogue box blooped.
Or a talk? I haven't seen you in a while.
Astrid swallowed. Sure, but Hiccup isn't home yet.
Did you text him?
No.
Well, there's you trouble! She could almost hear Heather laugh. So – dinner?
Sure
K – I'll be there in ten
Ok Astrid hugged the phone in her hand and brought up Hiccup's name. Even their text conversation lacked. Everything they'd said to each other had been simple, one or two worded texts, mostly about dinner or being late. What was happening to them?
Hey, I'm going out with Heather for dinner. You want me to bring you something? Astrid swallowed as the text floated up into the dialogue box, drowning the smaller texts.
It took a moment, and with each her heart fluttered. Has something happened to him? Has-
Buzz.
Ok – be home in like five, I've eaten. Hiccup.
She released a sigh she hadn't felt. He's okay. She put the phone down and redressed for dinner, a lazy college dinner. She wasn't feeling up to makeup or real clothes. She had work for that.
Hiccup arrived, looking worn and beaten, a few minutes before Heather did.
"Hey, long day?" Astrid asked, starving for his attention.
"Yeah, midterms are stressful." Hiccup slumped on the couch.
"I know," Astrid nodded. She bit her lip. Hiccup closed his eyes and stretched his arms. She fought the urge to race over to him and jump between his arms, and encase him in hers. She missed his touch, his embrace.
Heather knocked, and pranced through the door. "Hey, ready?"
"Yeah," Astrid nodded. She turned to Hiccup, "Are you sure you don't want anything?"
"Not really," Hiccup sighed, eyes closed. "Surprise me."
"Okay," said Astrid as she motioned to the door to Heather.
The door closed and they were halfway to the elevator when Astrid saw the door down the hall open, and Taylor the bodyguard step out, trying his best to be nonsuspicious. They weren't doing a very good job, obviously. Hiccup noticed.
"Man, what is going on?" Heather asked as they stepped into the elevator.
"What?" Astrid snapped her attention to Heather, away from Taylor, sulking to the stairwell.
"Did you guys just have a fight?" Heather asked, perfectly plucked eyebrow perched.
"No?" Astrid crossed her arms as the doors closed.
Heather hummed her disbelief. "Right. What happened?"
"He knows something is wrong," Astrid said. She hadn't told Heather about Dagur, or her parents, and she planned to keep it that way. She already knew too much. "We haven't been talking much, or…"
"When was the last time you guys had sex?" Heather asked bluntly as the elevator doors opened. A middle-aged woman waiting to board pointed her nose to the ceiling as she passed them.
"I-I," Astrid started, but paused.
"You don't know?" Heather interrupted.
"It's been a while." Astrid dropped her arms and stuffed her hands into her pockets.
"Why?" Heather asked, as if the answer was so simple, so easy to see, that it was beyond her how Astrid could not.
"It's…complicated."
"Yeah, that's not going to fly with me." Heather crossed her arms as they headed out into the parking lot. "I need real answers."
On the drive to the downtown café, Astrid spilled her mind. She told Heather about Hiccup starting school, these new friends he spends time with that don't like her, and this girl he talks to, Cara, who hangs out with him too much.
"Is that jealousy I hear?" Heather smiled.
"No, yes, I don't know." Astrid pulled into the lot a little carelessly, testing out the brakes as she whipped into a spot. "It's just…he used to talk to me like that. Now he barely acknowledges my existence."
"It might be the beginning of a friendship," Heather said. "You know how finding a new friend is. It's someone new to talk to, to learn about, to do things with. It's exciting!" Heather paused as she climbed out of the car. "It's like getting a new toy, he'll play with it a while but he'll always come back to his favorite when the novelty's worn off."
"Am I supposed to be the old favorite?" Astrid asked plainly.
"Would you rather be the new, replaceable one?" Heather asked with a slight smile on her red lips.
Astrid sulked. This hadn't cheered her up at all.
"Okay," Heather said, gesturing to Astrid. "He's special to you, right? Well, then do something special for him, make him feel wanted and appreciated and loved. Men need that."
"Like what?" Astrid asked as they entered the somber café, mocha on the air.
"I don't know," Heather laughed. "He's your boyfriend, not mine."
They sat down, ordered, and while they waited Astrid pulled out her phone. "You think his online profile would have something on it?"
Heather shrugged. "Maybe?"
Astrid scrolled. His twitter was dead, and his last Facebook status update had been six month ago. "There's not much on here."
"Check his basic info," Heather said, leaning over the table to watch.
Astrid tapped the screen, and while it loaded the food arrived. His basics were bare, except…yes. She'd struck gold. She gasped, "Oh my god."
"What?" Heather asked quickly.
She smiled wickedly across the table.
"What?" Heather asked again, biting her lip, staring with wide, hungry eyes.
X
Hiccup, still groggy, drug himself out of bed with his alarm. Astrid lay beside him, rolling over onto her other side, away from the blaring sound. Her alarm wouldn't go off for another hour. He straightened his leg and stood, starting across the bedroom to the kitchen.
"Mail's on the table," Astrid mumbled into the pillow.
It took him a moment to configure her sleepy words, then nodded. "Okay."
Hiccup got a glass of orange juice, then fingered through the pile of mail on the counter. They never received much mail, but today one envelope caught his eye. He set his glass down to examine it further. His name shone bright on the front, handwritten in blue ink.
At the return address, he nearly dropped it. Valka Haddock.
Hiccup set it back down on the counter and turned his back, and washed his face in the sink, cold water. He let it dry and then took a lengthy drink of juice before picking the letter back up again. He carefully opened the letter, as if it might explode, and pulled out a simple card. The words Happy Birthday played colorfully on the front. Delicately, with shaking hands, he opened it.
Harold,
I know we haven't been close in the past. I'm sorry. I'd like to talk to you. Call me. You don't have to if you don't want to.
-Mom
Hiccup read the leader several times, still disbelieving the phone number written could lead to his mythical mother. Still, a hand reached for his phone and dialed the number into his contacts. His thumb hesitated over the call icon, and as he heard motion from the bedroom, he stuffed the letter into the envelope and dropped his phone into his pocket.
"What's up?" Astrid yawned, standing in the doorway. "Did you open your letter?"
"Yeah," Hiccup nodded, flicking it toward Astrid. He didn't have a reason to keep it from her. "It's from my mom."
Astrid blinked and sobriety shook her. "You mother?"
Hiccup nodded.
"What did she say?"
"She wants me to call her. She wants to talk." Hiccup felt his phone in his pocket, a dead weight against his leg.
"Are you going to?"
"I don't know," Hiccup shrugged.
"Hiccup, this is your mother. Reach out to her before she's gone." Astrid took a step closer to him, her blue eyes wide and urgent.
"I-I don't know my mother at all," Hiccup reasoned. "Maybe I should tell my dad?"
"Why?" Astrid asked. "She's your mom, not his." Her hand reached for his, lingered a moment, before leaving with Astrid to the bathroom.
Hiccup looked down at the letter. What to do?
X
Friday dragged by, leaving Hiccup stressed and worried. He checked his phone multiple times to see that his mother's number was still there, under "Mom." A part of him wanted nothing to do with her, not after all of things she put him and dad through, not after all of the things he had heard. She abandoned them.
What kind of a mother did that? How different would his life have been if she'd stayed?
But the other part wanted to call her, to hear her voice, to remember her, to know her as a mother. He wanted to know why she'd left, why she hadn't stayed in contact, why he hadn't been important enough to her.
These were his thought as he stepped into the elevator Friday afternoon, half paying attention to the man who stepped in after him. It was only when the door closed did he glance at him. His chest tightened. Sunglasses.
"Hi," Sunglasses gave a quick nod of his head.
"Hi," Hiccup awkwardly nodded in return.
A casual, informal meeting of neighbors. That's all. Maybe he was as suspicious of Hiccup, thinking he'd been followed around town by this skinny kid.
They stepped off the elevator together, and Sunglasses seemed to be doing everything he could not to look at Hiccup, and dropped his keys as he wriggled them from his pocket.
Hiccup detached himself as he tried to open the door to his apartment, and found it locked. He withdrew his key and let himself in, only to find a late snowfall in his kitchen.
"What the hell?" Hiccup said as he closed the door.
Astrid spun around. The counter behind her was an absolute mess, flour, eggs, milk, an a dozen other things scattered the space. She had flour all down her t-shirt, and the floor too. It looked as if the bag had exploded. Some if it was even in her hair.
"Hey," Astrid waved at him, sending a little plume of flour into the air. "How was your day?"
"Uh, fine?" Hiccup asked. "Yours?"
"Not bad." Astrid nodded.
"Astrid, what are you doing?" Hiccup asked, letting his bag fall to the ground.
Astrid sighed, and dropped her arms against her sides, and flour dusted out from her. "I'm baking a cake, or attempting to. It was supposed to be for your birthday."
"Oh," Hiccup said, stunned. "Why?"
"Why not?" Astrid blinked. "It's your birthday, you should celebrate. You're only 23 for so long."
"How did you know about my birthday?" Hiccup asked, taking of his shoes, thinking at once that she'd opened his letter, but it had been sealed.
"I spied it on your Facebook page."
Hiccup groaned. "Right. I should really delete that."
"Why didn't you tell me about your birthday?"
Hiccup shrugged. "I don't know, it never seemed important."
Astrid shook her head at him, "What do you mean it's not important? Of course it's important! It's your birthday!"
"Technically, Sunday is my birthday." Hiccup corrected her.
"I still would have liked to know," Astrid shrugged.
"I didn't want you to think I-I expected anything," Hiccup sat on the couch. "It's not a big deal."
"Yes it is!" Astrid whined. "I would have felt like a lousy girlfriend for not doing anything for you on your birthday."
"Well, thank you for the cake." Hiccup swallowed, already dreading it. "Where is it?"
Astrid bit her lip. "It's in the microwave. I heard you coming and I wanted to surprise you."
"Oh, you did that." Hiccup laughed, nodding to her flour-self. He got up, and carefully stepped to the microwave. Inside, was a plainly decorated square cake, with Happy Birthday written in increasingly small letters. "Thank you, Astrid."
The light bloomed on her face, and she smiled, just like she used to. Despite the flour, he put a hand to her cheek, and ran a line through the white powder.
"Oh, and I'm taking you out after dinner and cake," Astrid said with a bright smile.
"Out?" Hiccup asked.
"Yeah, out out."
"What does that mean?"
"You know, like to a club. Have you ever been?"
"No." Hiccup shook his head. "Berk's not exactly known for its hip night life."
Astrid smiled and laughed, "Right, so I'll show you at least a decent good time. Besides, it's free shots on your birthday."
"Oh," Hiccup tried to sound enthused. It sounded…dangerous.
X
Astrid dressed in the shortest dress she owned, and made Hiccup change into something besides a t-shirt. A cab took them uptown, to a neon light and thumping club. Inside, the pounding music banished the need for talking and pulled bodies to the sticky, black-painted floor, pushing them together, hands, hips, and hair. Hiccup held tight onto Astrid as the undulating bodies pressed in on him from every direction.
She kept close to him, and danced in his arms, and encouraged him to do the same. He shook his head, tried to speak, but the music drowned his words. Astrid smiled, and took him toward the busy bar that lined one wall. She reached around for his wallet and pulled it out of his pocket, and handed his ID to the busty woman working the bar, and pointed at him, the ID, and held up two fingers. With a few flicks of a wrist, money landed on the counter, vanished, and two green shots appeared.
Astrid picked them up, and handed one to Hiccup. She pointed to herself, and downed the drink without batting an eye. She motioned for Hiccup to do the same. He did, with difficulty. He coughed, but recovered.
"What was that?" he tried to asked, but the music drowned his words. Astrid quickly replaced his empty hand with another shot, and another after that.
The night beat on, and Heather emerged through the rainbow-light freckled crowd, reaching around to dance close behind Astrid, her hands tracing the sides of her dress. Astrid pulled Hiccup in close, and loved the feeling of having them both so close to her. She could smell Heather's rich vanilla perfume, and Hiccup's body wash.
Heather's art friends came out, and for a moment the dance floor was theirs. The dancing and drinking blending together for Astrid, but soon she saw the effect on Hiccup. Sluggish swaying, hand on his chest, time for a break. Astrid tapped Heather's hand, pointing to Hiccup, and she nodded.
Astrid wrapped her arm around Hiccup and took him to the back, where the music wasn't so loud. She pushed him through a backdoor and into the alley outside. Without the music, the air felt thin and fragile.
"Hey, you alright?" Astrid asked. "You've drank as much as me, and I'm seasoned."
Hiccup mumbled something and leaned against Astrid's shoulder.
"It's okay," Astrid put a hand on the back of his neck. His skin was hot under her touch. "Breathe, take your time."
Across the alley sat a Chinese takeout, and smells of frying oils and sweet and sour wafted out of the closed kitchen. Astrid leaned against the brick wall of the alley, and Hiccup leaned into her, tightening his embrace. He moved in close to her, face in her neck. His hot, sloppy lips met her neck, and gooseflesh erupted. His hands tightened on her hips and his lips crept along to her ear, to her cheek, and settled on hers, kissing her with all the flavors of colorful drinks he'd ingested.
She felt him against her, a hard poke in her thigh, and somewhere in her brain an alert sounded. Drinking and sex never mixed well, it said. Astrid put a hand on Hiccup's shoulder to stop him, to push him away, but his hands on her thighs halted her. She'd missed his touch, and now she had it. He kissed her, and tried to undo his pants with drunken hands. Astrid reached down to assist. He slid his hands underneath her skirt, pushing it up, and pressed himself against her, passed her underwear. Astrid lifted a leg to his hip and his hands slipped underneath her knee.
Admittedly, she preferred to be sober. Alcohol skewed things. But it was Hiccup, not some random man she'd pulled out of the club. Hiccup. Hiccup could have her, as much as he wanted, she decided. She didn't mind that the brick of the Chinese place rubbed her back wrong, or scrapped her legs. Hiccup's erotic, sensual moans in her ear replaced all of that.
Somewhere inside were two shots, just waiting for them, and a gang of fun-loving art students willing to dance with them in the bright, burning lights and pounding music. Astrid wanted to be back in there, but she refused to squander this moment with him, the first she'd had in a while.
X